DESCRIPTION Huge pepsis wasp body length is approx 55.5mm wingspan is 111 mm ! Rarely offered as they are difficult to obtain in this double extra large size. Pepsis are called tarantula hawks because they search for, paralyze, and can carry large tarantulas back to their nests . These are among the largest and most aggressive wasps in the world.

Adult tarantula hawks get their nutrition from nectar, but only the females will battle spiders to provide food for their offspring.

They pierce the tarantula with a sharp, curved sting, rapidly injecting venom that permanently paralyses but keeps its hairy adversary alive.

The incapacitated spider is either held captive in its own burrow or dragged to the wasp's nest. The female then lays a single egg on the spider's body.

The purpose of this act: a pre-prepared dinner.

When the egg hatches, the larva burrows its way inside the spider's abdomen and begins feasting on the still-living tarantula.

It begins by feeding on haemolymph - the spider equivalent of blood - before gorging itself on the tissue.

Eventually the offspring emerges from the spider as an adult tarantula hawk.

If stung, just scream

For humans and other vertebrates, the tarantula hawk has one of the most painful stings on the planet.

American entomologist Justin Schmidt created the sting pain index, with the help of variably willing or unwitting test subjects. He once described the tarantula hawk's sting as 'instantaneous, electrifying and totally debilitating'.

The tarantula hawk has been awarded second place on the Schmidt sting pain index, beaten only by the South American bullet ant (Paraponera clavata).

The pain from a bullet ant sting lasts up to 24 hours, whereas that of a wasp usually only aggravates the unlucky victim for five minutes.

Schmidt has also in the past suggested that when stung, the only response is to 'lay down and scream'. Tarantula hawks are fairly docile unless provoked, although the threat of debilitating pain appears to have left this insect mostly unchallenged, with no known predators.